The Day of the Dead: One Ritual, New Folk Costumes, and Old Identities

Camino Real Estudios De Las Hispanidades Norteamericanas, 2011

The largest Hispanic celebration in the U.S., El Día de los Muertos has both Spanish and Indigenous American roots. Largely unknown in the US prior to the 1970s, it was adopted by Mexican American artists as an emblematic symbol of the Chicano Movement. It is now part of the educational curricula of many U.S. schools and universities and is one of the most popular annual exhibits in art galleries and museums. Receiving prominent media coverage because of its colorful rituals, the celebration in its new socio-political context honors the growing demographic of Latinos in the U.S. and encourages moral reflection on issues of political importance. Many Day of the Dead activities honor popular Latino icons (i.e. artist Frida Kahlo, labor union organizer César Chávez, salsa star Celia Cruz) and a significant number draw attention to sociopolitical causes of death affecting the Latino community (i.e. gang violence, war, labor exploitation). Through public altars, art installations, street processions and vigils commemorating the dead, participants contest the privatization of sadness and frustration experienced by sectors of U.S. society disproportionately affected by an unnecessary loss of life. At the same time, the celebration is a unique medium for teaching about Latino identities and histories. Based on ethnographic observation of more than 100 Day of the Dead events in the United States over a 10 year period, as well as interviews with 78 Chicano artists and other participants, this paper will discuss the emergence of the celebration in the US and the changes in meaning that have occurred as the festivities have migrated to new geographical and socio-political contexts. Keywords: Day of the Dead, Chicano Movement, Chicano art, Arte Chicano, Latinos in the United States, culture and politics, altar-making, ofrendas, invented traditions, imagined communities, cultural reappropriation. La fiesta hispánica más grande de los Estados Unidos, El Día de los Muertos tiene raíces indígenas y españolas. Básicamente desconocida en los EEUU hasta la década de los años setenta, la fiesta fue adoptada por artistas México-Americanos como un símbolo emblemático del movimiento chicano. Ahora forma parte del currículum educacional de muchas escuelas y universidades norteamericanas y es una de las exposiciones más populares en museos y galerías de arte. La celebración recibe amplia cobertura de los medios de comunicación dado a sus rituales coloridos y exóticos. La celebración en su nuevo contexto político y social hace honor a la creciente presencia latina en los EEUU y alienta la reflexión moral sobre cuestiones de importancia política. Muchas actividades del Día de los Muertos están dedicadas a iconos populares latinos (como por ejemplo Frida Kahlo, el sindicalista César Chávez, la cantante de salsa Celia Cruz) como también a recalcar causas de muerte y sufrimiento que afectan a la comunidad Latina (violencia de las pandillas, la guerra, explotación laboral). A través de la construcción de altares públicos, instalaciones artísticas, marchas, y vigilias honrando a los difuntos, los participantes enfrentan la privatización de la tristeza y la frustración experimentada por los sectores de la sociedad americana afectada desproporcionalmente por la muerte innecesaria. Al mismo tiempo, la celebración es un medio único para enseñar sobre la historia e identidad latina. Basado en la observación etnográfica de más de 100 eventos de Día de los Muertos en los EEUU a través de una década, como también entrevistas a 78 artistas chicanos y otros participantes, esta monografía discute la llegada de la celebración a los EEUU y los cambios de significado que han ocurrido al cambiar las festividades su geografía y contexto socio político. Palabras clave: El Día de los Muertos, El Movimiento Chicano, arte chicano, Latinos en los EEUU, cultura y política, creación del altar, ofrendas, tradiciones inventadas, comunidades imaginarias, reapropiación cultural.

IJHTH المجلة الدولية للتراث والسياحة والضيافة, 2021

Honoring the dead in a great celebration is not a new tradition in Mexico. Thousands of years before the existence of the Mexican day of the dead, ancient Egyptians had dedicated a yearly festival to commemorate their dead in what is known as the beautiful feast of the valley. This study aims to show the similar beliefs of both ancient Egyptians and ancient Mexicans about death and their commemoration of their dead. This article explores the origins of the modern day of the dead festival which is held every year in Mexico and how it has survived and preserved a part of the cultural heritage of ancient Mexico. It explains similarities between the rituals and traditions of the beautiful feast of the valley and the Mexican day of the dead. This work highlights the purpose of each festival and its social importance as both celebrations are intended to enhance the national identity.

I I P Iterative International Publishers , 2022

Abstract Coco, (2017) an animation film by Pixar (Walt Disney) brings into the forefront one of the Mexican traditions, engaging in the folklore and culture bringing together family, tradition, and ritual around the deceased. The director Lee Unkrich has adopted the model of being culturally conscious, working towards culture appropriation of family legacy and solidarity. The Day of Dead (Día de los Muertos), is a two-day festival celebrated on the 1st to the 3rd of November to honour the dead. A large altar is set up for the deceased family member with decorations and food items that was favourite of the member who has passed away. The general perception of comparing Halloween with the Day of Dead has marginalized, misinterpreted the significance and cultural specificity that the Day of Dead has, as a result is losing its authenticity and its true cultural heritage. While there has been several alterations and adaptations of the customs and traditions in the wake of colonization in the early sixteenth century due to the catholic influence, the Day of Dead continues to be the most celebrated festivals of the Mexican peninsula and down towards Guatemala. Traditions, cultures, knowledge, understanding of the world have experienced innovation in ways that we never imagined, which has resulted in an expansive cultural exchange and sharing of knowledge. There has been a great deal of dilution in values and traditions replaced by newer concepts and ideas in the new millennium. It is therefore even more pressing and urgent to conserve, to educate, to revive, to retain, to reclaim, identities, traditions, folklore, and cultures. The article examines the authenticity of preserving the Mexican folklore and its tradition through the analysis of the film Coco. The theory on authenticity elaborated by Walter Benjamin in his article titled ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ will be the central aspect of the study. Keywords: Coco, Mexican folklore, Day of Dead, authenticity, identity

This paper analyzes the dynamics of visiting migrants and the local community, based on their daily interaction, through rituals, in their hometown of Cenotillo during the festivity of Patron Saint Clare of Assisi. The fiesta of Santa Clara de Asis is celebrated every year, the second week of August. Yucatan, Mexico has particular communities with high index of migrant population who live in the United States and regularly try to visit home. Through formal and informal interviews and conversations and observations, this study analyze the impact of rituals on both, local people and migrants through which women and men produce and reproduce feelings of home, belonging and cultural identity. Although the study is mainly interested in the adjustment of the peoples' identities based on the phenomenon of migration during the festivity, discussions and interviews will not be confined to return migrants only, it will include a wide range of female and male from different backgrounds, who have returned especially for the patron saint festivity of Cenotillo and those people who are currently living in the community. This study explores women and men migrants’ self-defined identities, who visit their hometown and compare to those people who stay and adapt their lives during those days of celebration. Questions about ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ will be focused at as a way of understanding the rituals and identity formation among such populations.

Old Spanish Days Fiesta is a tradition that was invented in 1924 by civic leaders in Santa Barbara, California to celebrate the period of the Spanish settlement and the Mexican rule of California and to promote local tourism. This article will trace the historical narrative of the complex cultural and ethnic composition of Santa Barbara before interrogating the colonial and post-colonial histories of the Californian past that are so often romanticized during the events of the Santa Barbara Fiesta. Subsequent to the American appropriation of California, Anglo-American ideas of race and identity were imposed upon Latino Californians. This development led many Spanish-speaking Californians to cultivate a Spanish identity and de-emphasize their Mexican, Native American, or African ancestry as they attempted to maintain their land grants and social prominence under American rule. Official versions of Santa Barbara's past promoted by Santa Barbara's civic leaders and Old Spanish Days Fiesta literature tend to privilege romanticized historical interpretations that submerge and absorb California's hybrid ethnic and cultural histories into an idealized Spanish colonial narrative. This article explore s how many individual Santa Barbara Fiesteros choose to engage, negotiate, and/or subvert this simplified official civic narrative of Santa Barbara's Spanish past through their own personal performances during the Fiesta. An analysis of how local festival participants envision their performance in the context of the festival allows outsiders to have a glimpse into how they create and embody their own nuanced understandings of history during the Fiesta.

2019

A marked shift and transformation in indigenous festivals in Nigeria has led to what I describe as the ‘carnivalization’ of cultural festivals. To explore this cultural change, this article examines costume and mask utilization in the Abuja Carnival (masquerade events) and the performance vagaries attached to it in its 2007 and 2008 editions. I argue that the similitude between the carnival and the masquerade performances in areas such as dance, music, costuming, masking, processional spectacular display results in major events that will continue to grant carnival and masquerade arts the desired popularity in Nigerian cities at the expense of its ritual undertones.

Annals of Tourism Research, 2004

Using Day of the Dead in the rural Mexican community of Huaquechula as an example, this paper analyzes how various levels of the state, in its roles as planner, marketer of cultural meanings, and arbiter of such practices, mediate between cultural tourism and local identity in a global context. It shows that the results have been met with opposition from some community groups. Although such opposition has caused the state to rethink its strategy, it remains intent on using its new program of cultural tourism as an alternative form of development in rural Mexico.

Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2016

The idea of this issue of Folklore: EJF emerged from the panel we organised on behalf of the Working Group on the The Ritual Year at the 12th Congress of the Société Internationale d'Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF) held in Zagreb, Croatia, in June 2015. 1 We concentrated on the calendric and life cycle usage of the traditional garments and their parts, and we also followed, as much as possible, the new development trends and even the expansion of authentic clothes. Folk costumes are amongst the most topical and discussed issues in historical and contemporary folklore studies, ethnology, and cultural anthropology, and remain important for many people in many countries. The bibliography on costumes is vast, and it includes huge academic volumes, albums, and articles. Moreover, academic, popular, political, and commercial interest in the garments and their accessories continues to grow. The old pieces of traditional clothes and their replicas are being sought by museums and private collections, for cultural performances, and occasionally they are sold in flea markets, as we saw in Zagreb. During the past decade, we have witnessed the growth of a number of conferences, 2 publications and discussions on folk costumes (

2020 "La creación de Oaxacalifornia a través de tradiciones culturales entre jóvenes Oaxaqueños de Los Ángeles, California". in Desacatos. Revista De Ciencias Sociales, n.º 62 (enero):172-81.

Revista ANTHROPOLÓGICAS, 2015

Social changes in Mexico during the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century – such as rapid population growth, migra- tion to urban centers and the United States, and changes in general living conditions – contributed to a deterioration of social contexts and conditions for the performance of traditional music. By the 1980s, governmental institutions, musicians and cultural promot- ers started to organize music festivals in different regions as a way to promote and revitalize regional culture and musical practices. Drawing on ethnographic material, I examine the Festival de la Huasteca as a yearly cultural event in which music is experienced as entertainment as well as performance of group identity (ethnic, cul- tural, and regional) in Northeastern Mexico. The festival also serves as a means of reinforcing Huasteca identity and culture through music, dance, and other cultural expressions. [Music festivals; Identity; Music and Place; Traditional Music; Mexican Son]

2013

Oaxacalifornia, offers an comprehensive study of the Guelaguetza festival, an indigenous Oaxacan transborder cultural performance. Recognizing that festivals are important sites through which cultural ideals and values are displayed, transmitted, and reproduced or challenged, I conducted original ethnographic research over an eight-year period to produce the first transnational study of the Guelaguetza festival. My research not only analyzes the production of the festival in Oaxaca City, but also follows the same migratory route of Oaxaqueño migrants across what many scholars have called, Oaxacalifornia in order to document the multiple reproductions of the Guelaguetza festival on different social terrains, specifically Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, California. Producing this elaborate festival requires a tremendous amount of labor, time and resources. Therefore, one of my principal concerns in this dissertation was to explore why and how Oaxacan migrants produce their own Guelaguetzas in California and to understand what the festival means to the people and community. By juxtaposing the Guelaguetza festivals in Los Ángeles and Santa Cruz, I highlight how Oaxacan migrants first devised it as a creative way to claim cultural citizenship vii in California and Oaxaca, and then came to use it to counteract racism, discrimination and gang violence. Over the course of my research, I have come to appreciate how the migrantproduced Guelaguetza festivals offers insight on the negotiations of indigenous migrants' daily experiences and the process in constructing a sense of community in new geographical locations. The Oaxacan migrant community's ability to sponsor the festival in the United demonstrates that the migrant communities have established themselves within the political and cultural landscapes of California. In sum, this study offers a window into how indigenous working-class migrant communities with limited resources navigate new bureaucratic structures, cultural norms, and public spaces to maintain and assert their cultural identities in a transnational context. viii Agradecimientos /Acknowledgements Just like organizing a Guelaguetza festival, completing a doctorate is not done by oneself. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, time, and resources by many people. Traveling this academic path has had its fair share of bumps in the road. I would have not been able to finish my secondary education without the support, mentoring, and faith of the following people: First, to my immediate family, my parents Consuelo Irene and Jose Octavio Chávez, who from an early age introduced me to Mexican folkloric dance and to fiestas in Colorado and Chihuahua. Who would have thought that one of their children would fall in love with dance and take it on as a field of study. Mis queridos padres, I love you both and thank you for all the cariño and support throughout all my years of education. Your countless care-packages of homemade comfort food items like chicharrones and frozen Pueblo green chile kept me tied to my Colorado roots. To my brother Augi and sister-in-law Brenda, thank you for being beyond supportive! Thank you for the wonderful honor of being Danica's madrina.

Social History/Histoire Sociale, 1996

Halloween, a relatively free-form holiday under no particular jurisdiction, has managed to retain the revelrous, liminal nature characteristic of many festivals in the past. With its roots in the pagan festival of Samhain or summersend, All Hallows Eve remained a festival of popular divinatory practices, of bonfires to ward off evil spirits or to help souls in purgatory, and of omens and magic. Rites of masking, treating, revelry, and mischief were well established before the major waves of Irish and Scottish immigration to North America, but Halloween did not attract much public attention until the 1880s as rival holidays declined. Halloween's modern popularity, however, also stems from its immersion in consumer culture and in the hyperreality of films, videos, spook houses, and ''terror trains'', in which the distinction between the real and the imaginary is blurred.

New Theology Review, 2016

This essay explores the ritual dynamics of Good Friday at the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. Four liturgies take place on this day, the most famous of which is the via crucis, or public reenactment of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. As gripping as the via crucis is, the author focuses on a lesser-known Good Friday liturgy, a traditional Mexican service called the Pésame. In this solemn service, congregants come to pay their condolences to the grieving Mary, who performs a powerful liturgical dance. The essay explores the ways that Mary’s dance ignites not only a visceral aesthetics of sense but also a more encompassing aesthetics of the moral imagination. In offering this interpretation, the author draws on insights from both ritual studies and practical theology, showing how they may critically inform each other.

Journal of American Folklore, 2003

Days of The Dead: Ritual Consumption and Ancestor Worship in an Ancient West Mexican Society. 1998 University of Colorado, PhD Dissertation, 1998

This study focuses upon the Teuchitlan people of ancient West Mexico, who lived near Tequila Volcano, Jalisco from 300 BCE to 250 CE. I argue that during the Late Preclassic Period of Mesoamerican prehistory, the central organizing principle of this society was based upon descent, and that kin groups practiced ancestor worship as a manifestation of this social organization. Deep shade tombs, a hallmark of the Teuchitlan people, are the tangible archaeological remains of their social emphasis upon kin goops and principles of descent. My study study of the organization of an early West Mexican society relies upon evidence drawn from both art and archaeology. As part of their mortuary rituals, the Teuchitlan people placed ceramic architectural models containing figurines, into the tombs of the dead. My analysis of the architectural features and zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figural elements on 82 ceramic models identifies the theme of ancestor worship and ritual consumption. At Huitzilapa, a Late Preclassic site on the flanks of Tequila Volcano (excavated by INAH archaeologists Jorge Ramos and Lorenza Mestas), I further investigate evidence for kin groups and ritual consumption. My settlement pattern study reveals the imprint kinship in the form of domestic architecture, patio group residences and family altars. I infer that the Huitzilapans had corporate kin groups that were ranked vis-a-vis each other. My ceramic analysis explores further the practice of ritual consumption. I conclude that the Huitzilapans conducted private mortuary feasts and public annual feasts that commemorated the ancestors. I propose that the localized production of the native Agave tequila plant, restricted to the Tequila Volcano area, gave the Huitzilapans an unusual advantage over their neighbors. This plant may have provided a food surplus and the juices needed to prepare intoxicating drinks of pulque and mescal. The corporate control over the valuable agave fields may've been the impetus for the formation of ranked descent groups during the Late Preclassic Period. The elaborate graves make the claims made by these groups to the rights and properties of founding landowning families.